Pure extract has sweet success

Jennifer Boggiss sees exciting opportunities for Heilala Vanilla in Japan and Brazil. Photo / Supplied

Te Puna-based company Heilala Vanilla has taken out the fastest-growing exporter and fastest-growing manufacturer awards in the central North Island section of the Deloitte Fast 50 awards.

Businesses that entered the programme were ranked according to their percentage revenue growth over the past three years, with the regional winners announced last Thursday. The 50 fastest-growing companies in New Zealand will be announced in November.

With revenue growth of 159 per cent over the past three years from its pure vanilla products, Heilala Vanilla was on a trajectory that would hopefully continue, director Jennifer Boggiss said.

"I would like to say that it's going to continue because I want us to be in the best restaurants and the premium food stores around the world. We've achieved that in New Zealand so we really want to duplicate that in our key offshore markets."

Heilala Vanilla's biggest export market was Australia but Mrs Boggiss expected that may soon change, with big new markets such as Brazil and Japan opening up to the company in the past 18 months.

The Brazilian importer - a manufacturer and retailer of boutique ice cream and yoghurts - had told Mrs Boggiss he expected to increase the size of his order by 20 times in the next year, while the Japanese market had the potential to become Heilala's biggest export market.

Heilala's growth in the past few years had been a product of a number of factors, Mrs Boggiss said.

"I think we have a premium product and it's a known food trend that people are turning to quality ingredients in their food."

In addition, the company's founding story - an aid project that blossomed into a business partnership between a New Zealand family and a group of Tongan villagers - won the company a lot of kudos. Finally, an investment of capital from Bay of Plenty angel investment group Enterprise Angels early last year had helped expand sales and marketing efforts.

Additional capital raising would probably take place in the next few years to allow it to keep growing, Mrs Boggiss said.

The company was part-way through the construction of a new building at the Newnham Park Horticulture Innovation Centre in Te Puna and hoped to move in by early next year. The building would include offices, production facilities and a show kitchen.

Beyond growing the eight markets the company now exported to, growth would come as people switched from using cheap vanilla essence products to premium pure vanilla products such as Heilala Vanilla, Mrs Boggiss said.

"Ninety-eight per cent of the world's consumption is in artificial vanilla, so we're in that 2 per cent and if we can grow it to 3 or 4 per cent that would be huge."